I wrote a five year plan (and you can, too)

All that spring cleaning in March, plus us gearing up to move in the near future, has got me thinking about the future. Why is that? Not really sure.

We love where we are here in Bend. Sure, I’m ready for spring weather (why, oh why, is it still snowing?), but I know I’ll be happy as a lark come August. That said, we’ve always been a nomadic family, and we don’t see that changing in the long-term.

But this was honestly the first time I’ve written something like a FIVE Year Plan. I’ve thought about it, sure, and it’s always fun to answer that question, “Where do you see yourself in ten years?” But never have I written out actual, concrete ideas.

It was eye-opening. (And yes, it reminded me of the 75-year plan on Bottle Rocket, if you ever saw that Wes Anderson blip in the late 90s.)

Our five year plan

2012:

Buy a fixer-upper, fix up said fixer-upper, and continue to live and work in Bend, Oregon. Write my next book. Continue saving for college and retirement (baby steps 4 and 5). Kids are 7, 4, and 2 (well, Finn turns two in June, halfway through the year). 10 year wedding anniversary!

2013:

Continue to live and work in Bend, Oregon. Keep saving for college and retirement, but also throw any extra money towards paying off the house. Also start saving for our 2015 plan. Take a family vacation. Next book released near the end of the year? Kids are 8, 5, and 3.

2014:

Continue to live and work in Bend, Oregon. Keep saving for college and retirement, but also throw any extra money towards paying off the house. Keep saving for 2015. Hit the road as a family on a North American book tour. Would love to live completely off the blog and other writing/online projects by the beginning of this year. Kids are 9, 6, and 4.

2015:

Keep saving for college and retirement, but also throw any extra money towards paying off the house. Take a six-month (or a year?) trip around the world as a family, researching where we’d like to live next. Keep working during this trip, begin writing my next book, and rent out our house in Bend. Kids are 10, 7, and 5.

2016:

Keep saving for college and retirement, and hopefully pay off our house. Start living overseas again, possibly for part of the year, with the remaining part of the year back in the U.S. If that’s in Bend, then still in the same house (maybe sublet the house as a vacation home while we’re overseas?). If elsewhere (like Austin?), then we’d sell the Bend house before going abroad. Kids are 11, 8, and 6.

The experience

It was harder than I thought it would be. Kyle would tell you that I’m pretty forward-thinking, continually getting excited about what’s next. But it was a challenge to get it on paper.

But it was also fun. It’s fun to dream, and scribbling this out gave me permission to Think Big. I put my pen down excited and refreshed.

I shared it with Kyle soon after I wrote it, and for the most part, he agreed. He helped tweak some wording and change a few glaring inconsistencies. But basically, this really helped us see that we’re tracking on the same page.

Things to know

This wasn’t completely comprehensive. I didn’t include every little travel plan or family event—we like to plan, but we also like to be spontaneous. We don’t know where, specifically, we plan to visit on our around-the-world trip (though we definitely have ideas!).

I kept it more about the entire family than about my own personal goals. Sure, I have them (health, skills to learn, and the like), but this five-year-plan isn’t really about me. It was about our family unit, what we want to do together.

Our plan is dreaming big, but it’s also possible. We actually are tracking along to fix up and then pay off our house, to travel, and to relocate again overseas. We may not get to do everything, but that doesn’t mean we can’t imagine.

This isn’t etched in stone. In fact, since I first wrote it a few weeks ago, it’s already changed a little bit. I’m not delusional in thinking nothing’s going to derail this plan, or that our desires won’t change in five years. I’m parking at Proverbs 16:9 on this one.

But I do know from experience that writing it down is a MAJOR step to seeing something happen. It’s happened to me already—this blog, the blog network, my book, living overseas, meeting certain people. Something magical happens when we own up to our dreams and draft them in words.

You can, too

You have dreams. I know you do. Even if you think they’re small potatoes compared to someone else’s, they’re still YOUR dreams, and you should treat them honorably.

Try it out this week—scribble down a few ideas for where you’d like to be in five years. What you’d like to do along the way. What would tighten your family bond. How these things would make you more the way you were meant to be.

And then share them with your spouse. Work on them together—hear his or her ideas, too, and decide if these are dreams worth pursuing together.

This weekend I created a five-year plan Pinterest board for visual inspiration. As we edit our ideas, come up with new ones, and cross things off the list, I hope to add more there!

Sure, I hold on to my life list loosely, and I have so much to be grateful for already. But we have permission to think outside the box, to dream big things for our family, and to pursue them. Join me?

What’s one thing you’d like to do in the next five years?

April 2, 2012

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Comments

Oh, what an exciting 5 year plan! I saw all the Pins earlier today, and was wondering what you were up to.

On my 5 year plan: a trip to England, without the kid(s). And hopefully a 3 (or 4?!) bedroom house. I’ve never sat down and made a specific plan like yours though – and I really like the idea. I think I’m going to try and do the same thing, because having concrete goals in sight would be really helpful.

Wow, wow, wow. Tsh, thank you for this. I had dreams and hopes (as everyone, I suppose!) but I have never written them down in a 5 year plan – thank you so much for this, I’m definitely going to be working on this this afternoon!

I was already following you, but now that I know you are in Bend, I’m definitely a fan! We’re in that town just north of you, which gets slightly less spring snow, but not much! Have to admit, glad my kids aren’t playing baseball this year.
On my 5-year plan is to continue to live and work in Central Oregon, but it’s getting harder and harder.
Eliminate our debt.
Because our debt is eliminated, go on 2 week-long trips per year, one with kids, one without.
Begin the stages to plan & build our own home.
Spend one summer touring the US. Whether by minivan, RV, campsites, whatever.

I love doing this too – although we flounder at the bit where I get hubby to help out with ideas as he is not a forward thinker at all and hasn’t finished thinking about it yet! It is very lovely to dream away about so many possibilities though.

This is a good question and I love all your ideas. Thanks for the loving push to write it down! This question is so hard with so many unknowns for after I graduate medical school… but writing it down may make things happen.

What a great idea! My husband and I always sit down to talk about the current year, and what we want to accomplish, but we rarely get past that first year. I think this would be a wonderful exercise, and to help visualize where we want to be in a few years.

I think one thing that I would really like to do is to travel around the US in a veggie RV. I would also love to go to England and Ireland.

This is a really great tool and technique. My husband and I make general goals for each year but we never plan a few years in advance like this technique suggests. This would be especially good as we have our first baby due in 4-5ish weeks. Thanks for sharing your 5 yr plan.

I love this!!! Actually, my husband and I spent most of our weekend mapping out a plan. We have some ambitious goals, so we need a plan.
2012 — stay where we are my husband working on current degree. (Master of Divinity in Seminary); apply for PhD programs.
2013 — Finish M. Div., Start PhD . We really would love for this to be overseas, hence a lot of planning… we are committed to no debt, so it seems almost impossible, but having a plan we are that much closer!
2013-2016 PhD work, stay out of debt, kids will be 8,6, and 4.
Crazy stuff, but exciting!

It’s hard for me to envision a five-year plan but maybe I’ll give it a try!

I have always been curious – do you move a lot because you like to move or are there other things that influence your decision? We have been living in the same house since 1988 and I feel like it’s about time to pull up roots and move somewhere else.

A combination of factors, really. Part of it is our “other” job besides the blog (we’re in a ministry of providing guest houses for non-profit workers around the world, so they can take a break and get back to their difficult jobs without having to return to their passport country), but we also just like it.

Kyle and I both grew up in the same house from birth to 18 (well, not the same between us, but lived in the same one our entire childhood—you know what I mean). And for some reason, we like adventure, change, and seeing the many ways people live.

I have a friend who is interested in getting into this type of ministry here in Portland. She has connections with Worldview center on the campus on Western Seminary. She has been dreaming and praying for ways the Lord can use her to minister in the lives of non-profit workers here and abroad. Can I get some more information from you about this to pass onto her? I know you have hundreds of emails! When you get to it, is fine. It just caught my eye. Thanks.

On a recent 10-hour road trip, my husband and I did our 15-year plan. With no children and retirement potentially being 12 to 15 years down the road (we’re hoping to retire in our early to mid-50’s), we know we have to financially plan now to have enough money for retirement but also enough to do the things we want to do in the meantime. We made one list of renovations we wanted to do to our home over the next 15 years and one list of vacations, dream purchases, etc. I also created a Pinterest board as inspiration and because I was so excited of our plans. I was even geeky enough to create a colorful pie chart with the anticipated cost to do these things so we can see what type of money we need, prioritize, etc. Dreaming of all of the things you want/plan to do helps the day-to-day routine be more bearable when you feel like you’re in a rut.

I do love long-term plans and agree that the act of writing them down somehow helps us hit or at least get closer to the goals than we otherwise would. (My husband does not do this planning – we talk/dream -but I’m the one who really considers details and puts things on paper). So sorry, but just ONE goal? Too hard! A few things I forsee in the next five years for us: getting our oldest child going with post-secondary studies, hopefully with plenty of scholarship $ to help; graduating our second child from our ‘home school’; completing my designation as a Registered Holistic Nutritionist and beginning to develop a new career for myself; to sell our rental property at a profit; and, finally, to go on an overseas trip as a family – don’t know where yet but Italy or West & Southern Africa are ideas.

Love it! I read a Richard Foster book a few years ago that contained this little quote that changed the way I make goals: “We tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in one year and underestimate what we can accomplish in ten years.”

I love to see what others have on their long-term horizons. So inspiring! Thanks Tsh!

This is so inspiring!! I love it when I get the chance to look ahead and think big. It *is* so refreshing!

I do have a question for you…any recommendations on how to approach this idea with a hubby who isn’t necessarily a forward-thinker? He is a man with simple needs and often quite content with the present. We often talk about future hopes but perhaps just the simple sitting down together and writing them out will help!

No advice, but I’m the same boat. I was trying to type out what I felt without sounding like I was putting down my husband, but you said it so much more graciously. I’m so thankful he is easy to please, but I tend to be a big dreamer so that is hard sometimes.

I am SUCH a spontaneous person and my dreams for my career and family change every year…it’s so very fluid that it’s hard to think of a 5 year plan! Plus, my husband’s in school for his PhD, so that dictates a lot.

But! I saw your life list includes seeing Loy Kratong in Thailand. My family lived in Thailand for 3 years when I was in middle school (and in Malaysia in high school) and I must say GO! Go in 2015! I am obsessed with south east Asia, as it is super affordable (except Singapore) and awesome and so very friendly. Plus: THAI FOOD.

My husband is the “write down”, goal planner in our family. In 2002, we built a house that we could stay in until the kids graduated and set up a 5-10 year plan. 6 months after moving in, my husband’s job moved us 2 states away.

So we began to think of ourselves as Californians…until the opportunity for a 7 month road trip came into play, so we planned an adventure instead of staying put.

Then, we finally got serious about settling down in our beloved city of Portland, OR. We were there for 5 months before my husband was re-located to Seattle, WA.

FOR SURE, we would stay in Seattle until the kids graduated. THIS was the house we would make our long term home….until 3 years later when my husband got a dream job offer in Portland. Now, we figure if we can just forecast for the next 12 months, we’re doing pretty good.

This is such an inspiring idea. I have been thinking about my future plans a lot this year and they include, setting up my own blog and website, settling down with my partner, starting a family and finishing my psychology qualifications. I am happy to say that three out of these four are already in motion.

Tsh, I think what’s most helpful about his post, is the focus on the family unit. Of course, there’s A LOT out there about personal goal setting, but not a lot of encouragement to create a family plan, which is a lot more difficult to do. I think if I started to make one myself and then showed it to the hubs he’d say, “wait, wait, wait, hold up a minute, you want to do WHAT?!?!” We aren’t tracking in the same ways you & Kyle are. I think that’s why it’s so helpful to get the conversation started! I have thought about a 5 yr. plan in ministry and personally, but I think I need to add this to my list!

Thanks you for sharing and inspiring us to dream and plan! I actually haven’t done this kind of planning in a few years (been busy working on letting God lead me since I’m extremely type-A). But I do think it is about time to be clear about what I want and still keep that space for being in His Will.

Wow I really need to do this. I have several goals I would like to accomplish in the next five years. A couple of them would be to fix up our house and to become debt free. Thanks for the inspiration to write it all down!

And I looooove the idea of making a board on pinterest for it. I’m a visual person so that would definitely help me.

I find having some big picture goals defined like this helps me to make the decisions along the way that help me get there. This is especially true with money. It’s a lot easier to say “no” to spending money on things in the short term if you have a longer term goal. I can always ask myself, would I rather spend money on this thing that I sort of want in the short term or do I want the big goal next year (or whenever it is). That decision is a lot easier than if I don’t have a comparison thing so I’m just asking myself if I want the short term thing.

I love how you kept it short and simple with just a paragraph per year. And this really resonated with me, “Something magical happens when we own up to our dreams and draft them in words.” I created a vision board here: http://familysponge.com/health/how-to-create-a-vision-board/, but I think writing out your dreams makes it super concrete because you are being specific using “I” and “we” instead of looking at images from someone else’s life in a magazine. I think the two together work perfectly.

In my five year plan, making the online world my main source of income, so we can be a nomad family is on our list. And also be available to our daughter’s needs with more flexibility in schedule. We lived in Kauai for three years, and now we are in California, but France is on my list. I’m excited to write some plans out. Thanks for sharing yours.

And we just visited Bend last summer for a family road trip to Portland, Oregon. Our friends have a house in Sun River. We had a blast. We got to snowboard in July for our 6 year anniversary.

Thank you for this inspiring post! I’ll give this a shot. I think my problem is the opposite; I tend to dream big (and of course the dreams are all peachy, sans any problems) that I don’t focus enough on how to get there, or for the times I’ve failed in the past, I didn’t consider why I did or what I could have done instead, or how to avoid that venture to begin with. I’ve been doing a ton of self-evaluations and this has helped me define my smaller goals so that perhaps my bigger goals can actually be attainable.

Ooooo! I love your plan! :o) Can’t wait to see how it all unfolds, and what exciting adventures the next 5 years bring. Awesome idea. Can’t wait to write out a plan too. It really is a bit intimidating in a way…must stay out of ruts though!!!

For the first time in my life, I am living precisely where I want to be for a looooong time. My previous long-term plans always involved a big move. But we’re hoping our baby graduates from the local high school. I’ve wondered how I’ll adjust to the long haul. I love the idea of establishing a five year plan for our settled life. It definitely needs to include finally getting around to planting asparagus, because we’ll actually be here for the harvest!

We tend to be very spontaneous, but too much spontaneity and one may not end up doing to really important stuff. So it IS good to plan, and then also plan to be spontaneous!
Hubby and I really need to do this. Our house is now an empty nest and we need to decide what direction we want to head next! Thanks for the boost, Tsh! Going to visit your Pinterest board now…

Love this…You have obviously thought and talked and vibed with your family the highlights of your five year plan…What if we pray about this and have it written down…how awesome it did be for it all to fall in place all acc. to His Will!!
I am going to get started on mine…

Doing something big like taking a year off to travel with your family is much easier, in my opinion, when the kids are younger – in elementary school. Once they get older, they get into their special interests and commitments and it gets trickier and more complicated. So- your timing on that looks good!

I enjoyed your post and couldn’t help wonder if your kids had input since your plans involve lots of travel. It was mandatory for us (my parents were military) and we loved moving all the time. It just never occurred to me that constant travel could be elective!

Our kids love, love, love to travel. That said, we didn’t ask them if this is something they want to do—they’re too young to have a major vote in our family plans. But we absolutely take in to consideration their needs and desires, because those are highly important and they play a major role in our family plans and culture. So we’re willing to die to this plan if it ends up not being the best for our kids.

As of now, though, something like this would be ideal for them. They’re already used to a bit of international travel.

We really need to do this! We have been talking a lot about things we want to accomplish in the next few years, but putting it in writing and with a little more substance – this is what we need to do. I love the idea of making a Pinterest board for a 5 year plan. I gonna have to borrow that idea!

Awesome idea and I’m going to do it! I like how you laid out your anniversaries and how old the kids will be – that really helps to see where they’ll be in their stage of life and how we can work with that!
In the next 5 years I’d like to do something special with my husband for our 5th anniversary (next year already!), buy a house and I’d like to have a second child. Pretty big plans! 😉

My husband and I just started on step 3a/3b. Part of our 5 yr plan is to fully fund our emergency fund and to buy our first house 50-100% down We’ve only talked about our 5 yr plan. It would be awesome to write it out so we can be reminded of our goals. I just started reading your blog about 2 months ago because of your no-poo and oil method for your face and hair. LOVE IT!! I’ll never go back! Thanks for the all the encouragement!

Cool list. My husband hates 5 year plans. I guess because they always ask that at interviews, “what’s your 5 year goals?” He just thinks about today. LOL!

We are debt free, but I know a car will be needed within 2 years. We are working on building up the savings to buy it in cash or mostly in cash and pay it off early. Then, we’ll need to rebuild the savings.

I’d like to pay off the house, but that will be more like 10 years. Not bad, as there are 28 years left on the mortgage.

We have hatched a 7.5 year plan to pay off all debt (student loans, med school loans, and two mortgages). Inside that, we plan to celebrate my 40th bday and our 20th anniversary by taking the fam to New Zealand in 2015. If all this works, we may move overseas when my twin girls turn 16 in 2019. I really don’t want them to drive, and this may be the best excuse.

Having my kids set yearly goals is something I am good at, but we have not gone beyond that much. My husband and I have talked about setting 5 year goals afyer reading your post, and I think it’s something we’re going to try to do this week with our boys while we are on vacation. They are old enough to get the point and have good input. I think it will be a good family bonding activity too.

In the next 5 years, I’d like to open my own coffee shop. I have been putting off creating my business plan but I feel motivated after reading your post! I’m going to work on it later this week Thanks for always being so motivational, Tsh! I love your blog!

My husband and I were actually talking about what we want the theme of our life to be in 50-60 years from now. It’s an interesting thing to think through and then work backwards to the 10 yr and the 5 year and even the 1 year plans. We’re starting the process, but I LOVE the idea of visually representing ideas on pinterest cause that makes it more fun! Great ideas!!

I haven’t been following for a long period of time, but I find the things you write inspirational I noticed you are doing the baby steps, and I got excited being in baby step one still, but going through FPU. I also think doing your 5 year plan in pinterest is awesome and I will probably use that! Thank you!

My husband and I *used to* have a yearly two day retreat when we would dream, scheme and pray about our present and our future. Your post is motivating and what I particularly appreciate is your acknowledgement that you will hold your “plans” loosely. I hold on to them tightly and become very frustrated when the Creator’s plans are different than mine. I think, frankly, we stopped goal setting and planning because things didn’t “work out as we planned.” I’m a little more mature now (I think?) and maybe I can create a five year “plan” without holding on too tightly. This is a well-timed blog post. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Ok, Tsh. This was an exceptional post. I also loved your one paragraph per year descriptions. We have oodles of kids and my husband is desperate to change his job. We were talking about a five year plan to pay off the house and think about doing something different employment wise. It’s amazing how easy it is to pigeon hole yourself because there doesn’t seem to be any other way.

PS. Pinterest was brilliant. Thanks for the motivation today. Needed that kick in the pants.

This is fantastic! I’ve been thinking a lot about making a brief plan/list of goals. I recently realized I completed a bunch of big items off a list I made almost 10 years ago. At the time I made the list I didn’t really think I could/would complete all of them. They were just fun ideas. I forgot about the list, but found it recently and was amazed that I had done so much.

Writing things down is such a huge thing! Thanks for the inspiration and encouragement!

Very motivational post Tsh, I think your focus of paying off the mortgage ASAP is one that I share, don’t know if I’ll be able to do it as soon as you plan to though. Also loved the use of Pinterest as a visual reminder, I just got my Pinterest invite so you’ve given me some ideas about doing something similar.

Hi Tsh- I’m wondering if I could use your Dave Ramsey graphic on my blog. We’re gearing up to launch our Fair Trade soap company in the next few weeks. I want to let my readers into the process, and I love the graphic you created with the Ramsey quote. I will post a link to your site. Let me know. Thanks! Robin

You’ve made this idea of a 5 year plan simple enough for me to at least consider! Our youngest will leave for college next fall So much will CHANGE (my one word for the New Year!). My hubby and I are due for a talk about our 5 year plan. My personal 5 year plan will include publishing a book. Thanks for the inspiration!

Wow, you made the intimidating concept of planning 5 years into the future actually seem fairly simple. These are great ideas here, and I’m going to write my own 5 year plan, because I’m generally terrible at planning for the future.